An Army for Empire: The United States Army in the Spanish-American War

This fully documented study presents the organization and administration of the Spanish-American War army and the responses of the War Department to the conflict of 1898 and the challenges of overseas empire. In a clear and concise manner, Cosmas puts forth factors that invited many of the war's disasters. The Congressional penury of the 1890s, the political conflict in Congress, changes in President William McKinley's military strategy and goals, which placed frequent shifting demands upon the army - all contributed to sending inexperienced land forces ashore in Cuba. This account reconstructs the War Department's story of the war and traces the course of the department's effort to organize and equip an army and then deploy it to secure objectives of national policy. Cosmas analyzes each major decision concerning these matters: how and why it was made and the results it produced.